Boehner has ‘serious concern’ with Senate jobless-aid deal

A Senate deal to extend unemployment insurance is running into trouble in the House of Representatives, with Speaker John Boehner saying Wednesday there is “serious concern” after state officials wrote to Senate leaders.

A letter from the National Association of Workforce Agencies – which administer state unemployment insurance programs – said the requirements in the Senate deal “would cause considerable delays in the implementation of the program and increased administrative issues and costs.” Boehner’s office sent the letter to reporters on Wednesday.

Boehner said in a statement that the state directors raised serious problems.

“We have always said that we’re willing to look at extending emergency unemployment benefits again, if Washington Democrats can come up with a plan that is fiscally responsible, and gets to the root of the problem by helping to create more private-sector jobs. There is no evidence that the bill being rammed through the Senate by [Majority] Leader [Harry] Reid meets that test, and according to these state directors, the bill is also simply unworkable,” Boehner said.

Last week, Goldman Sachs said the probability of a jobless-benefits renewal was less than 50%. On Wednesday, an analyst from the Eurasia Group said the outlook for the Senate bill in the House is even worse.

The association said that the legislation’s prohibiting millionaires from collecting benefits “would be very hard to administer,” since the unemployment insurance system doesn’t collect information on individuals’ adjusted gross incomes. And, the association said, the Senate agreement isn’t clear about how states would pay for administering their emergency unemployment claims if federal funds can’t be used to determine if individuals are eligible.